Interesting take on Day-1 from Hollinger........

[THE HCP]

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-freeagency-100701/seller-market

 

[illmatic99]

Bill Simmons:

Pick out the fake NBA signing from today: J. Johnson: 119m. Gay: 80m. Amir Johnson: 34m. C. Frye: 30m. A. Morrison: 25m. Darko: 20m

 

[THE HCP]

This shit is getting out of control!

 

[alex42083]

Imaginary cap space.

 

[Natebishop3]

Bill Simmons:

We know the answer, though it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.

 

[alex42083]

I just don't get the rush to sign these mediocre guys like Gooden, Darko and Amir to ridiculous amounts first. You'd think they'd be the last guys to be signed. And if you lose them... seems like you can easily replace them with another player equal to their talent at a much lower price.

 

[THE HCP]

You did notice these are all SHIT teams making the moves.

 

[illmatic99]

I just don't get the rush to sign these mediocre guys like Gooden, Darko and Amir to ridiculous amounts first. You'd think they'd be the last guys to be signed. And if you lose them... seems like you can easily replace them with another player equal to their talent at a much lower price.

The sad thing is they're not even MEDIOCRE. They're lower tier players who generally should be among the last four players on a good team's bench. I thought the Darko deal was slightly overpaying, but still fair considering he'll probably start next year, but Johnson getting $34 mil and Frye-- a one dimensional "big man"-- getting $30?! Totally reprehensible.

 

[alex42083]

You did notice these are all SHIT teams making the moves.

Yeah, I noticed. But damn, even noob fans would recognize how stupid those deals are ... and these guys are actually getting paid a ton of money to make these moves. It's just mind boggling.

 

[alex42083]

The sad thing is they're not even MEDIOCRE. They're lower tier players who generally should be among the last four players on a good team's bench. I thought the Darko deal was slightly overpaying, but still fair considering he'll probably start next year, but Johnson getting $34 mil and Frye-- a one dimensional "big man"-- getting $30?! Totally reprehensible.

Yeah, no doubt. Toronto is paying Hedo and Amir a combined $80-plus million over their contracts.. yikes. There are a TON of good players out there, who are not necessarily those elite franchise players.. and these are the guys that are getting paid the big bucks? Man.. how stupid.

 

[BGrantFan]

Aldridge got 5/$65m, right?

Not 5/$70m as it says in the article.

Fire KP!

 

[illmatic99]

IIRC, it's 70 with the incentives.

 

[KingSpeed]

You did notice these are all SHIT teams making the moves.

The Bucks are not a shit team. And Gooden makes them better.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

My takes:

Darko @ 4 years, $20 million. Honestly not that bad. He'll get some burn and its little risk IMO.
Channing Frye 5 years, $25 million. He earned the money, but he plays yo-yo ball. Only shows up every other year. Great blogger
Amir Johnson- 5 years/$34: a bit overpaid for a backup PF/C. Not much T-dot can do though, who would want to play in #Canada?
Drew Gooden: About $6 million per year. Sounds about right. Kind of a boring move. #bucks have some real snoozers of players
Rudy Gay-> Way overpaid. Should have let him walk and sign Travis Outlaw in the 5 years, 32 million dollar range.

 

[illmatic99]

Channing Frye 5 years, $25 million.

It's actually 30 mil. Does that change your opinion?

Amir Johnson- 5 years/$34: a bit overpaid for a backup PF/C. Not much T-dot can do though, who would want to play in #Canada?

It has been five years since he was drafted and he has started more games in the DLeague than in the NBA. He's a career 5pt, 4reb player. Combined with the contracts of Turkoglu and Bargnani, TOR would be in lux tax territory if they signed Bosh or acquired similar contracts in a S&T. Just horrible management.

Rudy Gay-> Way overpaid. Should have let him walk and sign Travis Outlaw in the 5 years, 32 million dollar range.

Agreed.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Phoenix isn't going anywhere w/o Amare IMO. Frye is a local guy who played awesome last year from behind the arc and stepped up in the playoffs. For that team he fits. $6 million a year isn't too much of a stinger IMO for what he did bring and in this crazy market.

Is he worth 1/2 of what La Marcus Aldridge makes? Maybe. I wouldn't do it personally.....like I said, he plays good every other year...he could regress next year, and its actually pretty likely.

 

[Ed O]

Again: we can all complain that every player is overpaid and every team is making a mistake, but... until there are BETTER deals and some teams that have showed restraint realize some payoff for their austerity... it's just us complaining. They all seem overpaid to me, but if EVERY signing this summer seems "overpaid" then I will have to reevaluate my standard.

Ed O.

 

[Sug]

The Bucks are not a shit team. And Gooden makes them better.

He might make them better, but that is still a lot of money for him.

 

[mook]

$80 mil to Gay? So they got rid of Pau Gasol's contract so they could give the same thing to Rudy Gay? WTF?

 

[maxiep]

IIRC, it's 70 with the incentives.

But from what I've read in here, Aldridge sucks so he'll never reach those incentives.

 

[maxiep]

Here's my conspiracy theory: Stern has assured the owners that they're going to push to make contracts non-guaranteed or only to guarantee the first couple of years. The owners have signed these crazy deals knowing they're short term rentals.

 

[Sug]

Here's my conspiracy theory: Stern has assured the owners that they're going to push to make contracts non-guaranteed or only to guarantee the first couple of years. The owners have signed these crazy deals knowing they're short term rentals.

I don't think that is a conspiracy theory since the first proposal from the owners had that type of language. They were also talking about making the changes retroactive to some existing contracts. I think you are correct, but let's be honest there is going to either be a strike or lockout to and probably a little bit of a messy situation.

 

[Nate4Prez]

Phoenix isn't going anywhere w/o Amare IMO. Frye is a local guy who played awesome last year from behind the arc and stepped up in the playoffs. For that team he fits. $6 million a year isn't too much of a stinger IMO for what he did bring and in this crazy market.

Is he worth 1/2 of what La Marcus Aldridge makes? Maybe. I wouldn't do it personally.....like I said, he plays good every other year...he could regress next year, and its actually pretty likely.

He did? I thought he disappeared in the playoffs?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

He did? I thought he disappeared in the playoffs?

I think at the end he did step up.

 

[B-Roy]

I think at the end he did step up.

Let's be serious here. Dude shot 36% from the field and 35% from three in the playoffs and all his numbers dropped.

 

[noknobs]

I just don't get the rush to sign these mediocre guys like Gooden, Darko and Amir to ridiculous amounts first. You'd think they'd be the last guys to be signed. And if you lose them... seems like you can easily replace them with another player equal to their talent at a much lower price.

The article answers your question. It's a pretty likely scenario that once the 'max-contract players' are off the market, there will still be several teams who have A TON of money but failed to get the max guys, so those teams will then turn there attention to these lower level players and they can offer them even more. So it's actually smart for other teams to strike fast while teams like New York/New Jersey are still holding out hope on the max guys.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

The article answers your question. It's a pretty likely scenario that once the 'max-contract players' are off the market, there will still be several teams who have A TON of money but failed to get the max guys, so those teams will then turn there attention to these lower level players and they can offer them even more. So it's actually smart for other teams to strike fast while teams like New York/New Jersey are still holding out hope on the max guys.

So it's overpay now, or overpay by even more later? I'll take option C, please.

 

[Masbee]

Here's my conspiracy theory: Stern has assured the owners that they're going to push to make contracts non-guaranteed or only to guarantee the first couple of years. The owners have signed these crazy deals knowing they're short term rentals.

Stern can't make any such guarantee. The more players there are that sign contracts that ostensibly they are not even close to being worth earning, the more players & their agents will dig in and fight tooth and nail to keep as much of that money as they can.

If that is some owners plan, I think they are talking a big gamble, and they likely loose that bet.

 

[noknobs]

So it's overpay now, or overpay by even more later? I'll take option C, please.

Yep. And if you've tanked for the last two years you pretty much have to take option A or B or your fans will burn the stadium down.

 

[Masbee]

Are you wondering if it is just us fans who are irrationally reacting to the millions being thrown around complaining about the crazy deals some owners are doing?

Nope, here is SI agreeing that this shit is out of control, and doesn't make a lot of sense with owners "talking out of both sides of their mouths":

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...agent.spending/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

Enjoy this frenzied summer of free agency. You're probably never going to see anything like it again.
Lost amid the feverish maneuvering of NBA owners and front-office personnel to recruit individual members of the best free-agent crop ever is that next summer these same men are going to claim they can't afford to pay the contracts that they will so proudly distribute over the next few weeks.

...And so a lockout, it seems, is inevitable, because as one owner admitted earlier this year, "We need protection from ourselves."